John Romero less than optimistic about Ouya

Trent Nouveau, 30th July 2012

Indeed, critics question whether the Ouya will have sufficient horsepower to compete with next-gen consoles from heavyweights Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft.

Nevertheless, the Ouya team has sought to assuage industry concerns by clinching a potentially lucrative deal with OnLive, which offers full versions of PC video games that stream over the web to a TV, set-top box or console.

Unsurprisingly, Romero was less than optimistic about the chances of success for the nascent Ouya console.

"I think it's cool that they're making a platform, but it's not really the answer that's coming from Apple about the next generation of consoles," he opined.

Romero also noted that bringing mobile games to televisions is something that can already be done via AirPlay Mirroring. According to developer-guru, the next-generation console is likely to be an all-in-one television to which games are downloaded directly without the need for a separate system or box.

"There are two platforms: [iOS] makes money [and] is still very programmable, like the Apple II, and then the other is Android, which is a piracy platform, and you're not doing anything new with it - you're making a bigger phone that connects to your TV.

"[Plus], with all Ouya games being free to play you have to basically make a micro-transaction game to make any money on it," he added.